Month: January 2011

So Rupert Murdoch’s much anticipated and delayed tablet newspaper “The Daily” gets it’s official launch date and that’s Feb 2nd. With this being the first dedicated digital newspaper for a tablet, I wouldn’t be surprised that it gets gobbled up and is the first step towards the end of the printed newspaper. That’s a big statement I know, but think about it, with newspapers dropping like flies and the kids chaining themselves to trees to save them from eventually becoming a bum’s blanket, it’s only logical that Murdoch’s digital newspaper will launch the next wave in how we get our news. I’m an ipad owner and before the ipad, I wasn’t a reader. But I find myself constantly browsing the iBook store or Kindle bookstore because reading has become fun and easy again. I’m not sitting at my desk in front of my computer, I’m laying at the beach being the techie with a book. I’m a sandy nerd I guess. And now I can get my news without the nasty black fingers as well as read books?!? I’ll take that. Anyway, mark this day as my prediction that the printed newspaper is on it’s last days and if you don’t have an iPad or any of the 10 other digital tablets that were shown at CES, you may as well get back under that rock you came from.

Rovio, the makers of the smash app Angry Birds is becoming an animated series! This little $5 buck app has gone from the Apple app store to the Android market to gaming consoles (Sony PS3, Xbox, Nintendo) and now television?!?! I own all the versions of the game on my ipad, from the original to the Halloween and Christmas versions, and even though they are basically the same game it is a wonderful way to waste my time when I’m waiting at the airport or the DMV, but how will the television animated series waste my time?!? I don’t think the battle between birds and pigs will take off as well as it has when you get to interact and play along. I guess it doesn’t matter because Rovio is laughing all the way to the bank and will take every opportunity to port their game to any platform. Hell, if it was me, I would.

With the 2011 Australian Open just underway, Venus Williams played in one of her own designed outfits. If you remember her shiny outfit at the 2010 US Open, this year’s Australian Open was not so much shiny but extremely short! Although she would have normally wear the dress with a pair of “nude” colored shorts, she comments to the press, “so the focus could be put on the dress”, but I’d have to say, if she did wear the “nude” colored shorts, I don’t think anyone would’ve been looking at the dress. Either way, good on ya! Show off what you got, I ain’t mad at ya 😉

Well it was inevitable that this was gonna happen, AT&T’s lockdown on Apple’s iPhone is now over . Verizon officially announced it’s finally getting the iPhone. I wonder how many AT&T customers will ditch them for “the nation’s largest cellular network”. Well I’ve been with AT&T since 87′ which is crazy that I’ve managed to not want to kill myself from all the drop calls especially on those Zack Morris brick phones back in the day so I’m not gonna jump ship just yet, but I know a few that are ready. Overall it’s a great expansion of the iPhone’s domain in the cellular landscape and will only allow Apple’s facetime app to spread to even more users.

Well it’s was a great year for Apple in 2010 and even better in 2011. The darling of the digital revolution has hit a market cap of over $300 billion and running 2nd to Exxon Mobil as the largest U.S. company by market capitalization. In 2010, Apple leaped over Wal-mart and Microsoft last year but still trails Exxon Mobil by roughly $65billion. Not bad for a company that was on the brink of becoming a distant memory in the late 90s. Good thing Apple brought back Steve Jobs, he may be a tyrant but he does know how to get a company back on track!